‘Cutest, Spikiest, Tiniest Little Crab’ Captures Everyone’s Hearts

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Last summer, when NOAA researchers were collecting marine-life samples in the Gulf of Mexico, they found the cutest little crab. After sharing a video of the adorable animal on January 7th, the whole world fell in love with it. The spiky crab is apparently a baby king crab, and researchers couldn’t keep in their awe as they inspected it for the first time (thankfully, someone was taking a video).

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“Oh. My. Goodness. WOW,” wrote NOAA Fisheries in its Instagram post sharing the viral video. “That was our reaction too, to seeing the cutest, spikiest, tiniest little crab in the world [. . .] This crab was found during an operation in the Gulf of Mexico in summer 2024, which collected samples of mesophotic and deep-sea coral species for lab rearing and propagation.”

The video gained a lot of attention online, and NOAA even shared a follow-up post with fan art that folks had created in honor of the cutest little crab in the ocean.

See the spiky baby crab here:

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A post shared by NOAA Fisheries (@noaafisheries)

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